Important: This course focuses on math, specifically data-analysis concepts. Excel is not the focus. We use Excel to do our calculations, and all math formulas are given as Excel Spreadsheets, but we do not attempt to cover Excel Macros, Visual Basic, Pivot Tables, or other intermediate-to-advanced Excel functionality.
This course will teach you how to create and implement realistic predictive models that are based on data. The Final Project (module 6), you will play the role of a bank business data analyst and create two predictive models that determine which credit card applicants should be approved and rejected. The first model will minimize default risk while the second will maximize bank profits. These models will demonstrate in a practical and hands-on manner how your business metrics drive your selection of the optimal model. This course demonstrates that data analysis results should not be used to eliminate all uncertainty. Data-analysts have two roles: to reduce uncertainty and quantify how much there is. Learn how to calculate the most critical uncertainty measures in business. This includes classification error rates, information entropy, confidence intervals for linear regression, and entropy. The course provides all the data that you require. All assignments are done in MS Excel and you will be able to complete all assignments. You will be able to use Excel in a way that is familiar enough to make it easy for you to understand the most common business functions. You won't need to know Visual Basic or Pivot Tables in order to complete the course. Excel spreadsheet templates are available to demonstrate advanced concepts and allow you to use them to answer questions. You will have a solid vocabulary and practical knowledge about how to apply business data analysis methods that are based on binary classification (module 2, information theory and entropy (module 3), as well as linear regression (modules 4 and 5). All of these techniques can be used with Excel, which is the only software tool more complicated than Excel.
